Human Rights
Watch: Democracy Activists Should Be Released
(New York,
November 28, 2007) – The Vietnamese government should immediately and
unconditionally release two human rights lawyers, Nguyen Van Dai and Le Thi Cong
Nhan, whose prison sentences were reduced after an appeals court hearing in
Hanoi today, Human Rights Watch said.
Nguyen Van
Dai, 38, founder of the Vietnam Committee for Human Rights, and Le Thi Cong Nhan,
28, an advocate for multiparty democracy, were arrested in March. In a trial in
May, Dai and Nhan were sentenced to five and four years imprisonment,
respectively, on charges of disseminating propaganda against the government
under article 88 of Vietnam’s penal code.
“No one should be imprisoned for peaceful political expression of their views,”
said Sophie Richardson, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. “Vietnam’s
crackdown on dissent shows no sign of letting up. Instead, the authorities
continue to arrest and imprison people for simply exercising their freedom of
speech and advocating for democratic reforms.”
Dai, a recipient this year of the
Hellman/Hammett prize for writers
facing political persecution, had conducted human rights training seminars in
Hanoi, documented land rights grievances by rural petitioners, defended
persecuted Christians, and helped launch a democracy newsletter. Nhan was
spokeswoman for Dang Thang Tien Vietnam (Vietnam Progression Party), one of
several opposition parties that surfaced during a brief period in 2006 when the
Vietnamese government temporarily eased restrictions on freedom of expression.
Among the crimes listed in Dai and Nhan’s indictment, dated April 24, are:
conducting workshops to “defame and spread disinformation” against the
government; “misinterpreting” the state’s policies regarding labor unions in
Vietnam; communicating through the internet with Vietnamese human rights
organizations abroad; and “collecting and hoarding” books by Vietnamese
dissidents and human rights activists, along with banned newsletters such as
“Freedom and Democracy” and “Free Speech.”
In today’s hearing, the appeals court reduced each of their prison sentences by
one year. However, upon release, Dai and Nhan will be placed under
administrative probation, or house arrest, for another four years and three
years, respectively.
“As a newly elected member of the UN Security Council, Vietnam should uphold its
international obligations on human rights,” Richardson said. “Instead, the
Vietnamese government is violating the basic rights of its own citizens.”
Lawyers for
Dai and Nhan forcefully advocated for the right of citizens to peacefully
express their opinions and argued against the constitutionality of article 88 of
the penal code. Lawyer Bui Quang Nghiem told the court: “Criticism against the
party and the leaders and about human rights cannot be considered propaganda
against the socialist state. If a law runs counter to reality and international
conventions, courage is needed to change or modify it. Dai and Nhan are
innocent, and I ask for their freedom.”
In a particularly courageous step, Dai’s wife, Vu Minh Khanh, released a
public statement today defending
her husband’s human rights work. She systematically detailed numerous procedural
errors that took place during Dai’s detention, police investigation, and first
instance trial. She also described violations of his civil rights as guaranteed
by Vietnam’s Constitution and the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights, to which Vietnam is a state party, and she called for suspension of
article 88 and the immediate release of her husband.
Dai and Nhan are among more than 40 democracy activists, opposition party
members, underground publishers, and labor union leaders who have been arrested
in Vietnam during the last 15 months.
The Vietnamese government launched its crackdown on peaceful dissent in late
2006 after it secured membership in the World Trade Organization and was removed
from the US government’s list of countries with the worst track records of
violating the right to freedom of religion.
The most recent arrests took place earlier this month when 20 police officers
raided a private home in Ho Chi Minh City, where a group of activists from the
Viet Tan (Reform) Party were meeting. Police confiscated Viet Tan leaflets
advocating peaceful democratic change and arrested six activists – including two
Vietnamese citizens, a Vietnamese-French journalist, two Vietnamese-Americans,
and a Thai national.
The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, international rights groups, and US
and European diplomats in Hanoi have criticized Vietnam’s criminalization of
peaceful dissent. The Vietnamese government has tried to justify this repression
through vaguely worded national security provisions in Vietnam’s penal code such
as article 88 (conducting anti-government propaganda), article 87 (undermining
the policy of national unity), and article 258 (abusing democratic rights such
as freedom of speech, press, religion, assembly, association, and other
democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the State).